IVF treatment will be down to a “postcode lottery” this spring when doctors
take control of NHS spending, Lord Winston has warned.

The fertility expert said the availability of in vitro fertilisation treatment was already unfair, with many Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) denying women the recommended three cycles of treatment.

The introduction of Clinical Commissioning Groups in April will widen the regional disparity as panels of doctors gain control of local budgets and target spending towards the most pressing needs in their area, he said.

While women in some areas may see the availability of IVF increase, others living in regions with different priorities — such as those with more elderly patients — could find treatment harder to come by, Lord Winston said.

This could force more women to seek private fertility treatment, driving up the cost of the procedure, he said.

The change in how NHS services are commissioned was dictated by the Health and Social Care Bill, which put spending in the hands of smaller, localised groups of doctors rather than PCTs.

Ministers said commissioning groups would spend NHS funds more efficiently. But many doctors claim that they have neither the time nor the inclination to devote to balance sheets.

Lord Winston, formerly a practicing doctor, said time would tell whether the Health and Social Care Bill was “thoroughly bad or just undesirable”.

However, it was sure to result in greater regional imbalances in care, he said.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends that women aged 23 to 39 with fertility problems should be entitled to three cycles of IVF.

In many areas controls on spending already mean patients are allowed only one, a situation the Labour peer compared to “offering a cancer treatment and withdrawing it half way through”.

Discussing how groups would affect the availability of IVF, the Labour peer said: “It will increase the pressure for a postcode lottery – you’ve got more commissioning groups, so that means there’s going to be more unevenness in access to health care. If you go to a community like Rotherham and then to a community like Chelsea, they have totally different health issues, problems, strategies.”

Restricting access to any treatment including IVF will raise its cost in both the private sector, due to higher demand, and the public sector because the NHS bases its pricing on private rates, he added.

“Most good GPs want to get on and see patients, they don’t want to run the health service,” Lord Winston said. “I suspect that by the end of 2014 we should have a really clear idea of whether this Bill is thoroughly bad, or just undesirable.”